Utete, TZ – Crop growing season impacts egg demand – 27 Jun 2014

The group running the chicken business in Kindwitwi is optimistic that they have overcome some of the biggest challenges to running their business. When they first started the project their challenge was to carefully care for the chickens so that egg production could attain maximum productivity. It took a few months but they were able to attain these levels of productivity.

However, they reached this level of productivity at the most difficult time of year for businesses. The March, April, and May crop growing months are difficult for doing business in Kindwitwi. Locally, many families go out to live on their farms, working all day and sleeping at night to chase off destructive animals like pigs, monkeys, and large birds. Families aren’t around to buy eggs and they are short on cash because they have not yet harvested. Business is also bad in nearby towns because the roads get washed away each spring so many visitors and business people don’t visit until repairs are done in August.

The chicken group was faced with a dilemma of having too many eggs that they couldn’t sell. To sell all of the eggs the price would have had to be so low they couldn’t have afforded chicken food. After a couple of weeks of shopping the eggs around looking for markets, the team came up with the solution of “loaning” eggs to small restaurants in nearby towns. The restaurant owners could get eggs in advance for free and would pay for the eggs after they had sold them, at the same time a new shipment was delivered. In addition to helping the team sell many of their eggs, this also allowed restaurant owners to offer a larger menu than they are usually able to do during the slow season.

By working hard, using some business creativity, and using profits from past months, the team got through the difficult season with all of their chickens and is now looking forward to the post-harvest season where business should be very strong. At current production levels, the team will be able to earn good profits each month.